What you didn’t know about Gossip Girl

Ten years ago Gossip Girl premiered, and as soon as we heard Kristen Bell greet the Upper Eastsiders we were completely hooked.

So in honor of the show, we’re settling down with our popcorn and our Netflix accounts and reliving the glory days with all the things we never knew about the series

Pre GG…

Before we’d even heard the name, Blake Lively Gossip Girl was originally pitched as a movie. With Lindsay Lohan for the role of Blair and Justin Chatwin as Nate, it was going to be a one-off movie until the backers fell through.

When the idea was reworked into a TV show casting directors initially pitched Ashley Olsen and Rumer Willis in the roles of Blair and Serena.

Music…

Many of the cast members have extraordinary musical talents, Taylor Momsen now fronts the successful rock band Pretty Reckless. Ed Westwick was in a band during the show. Leighton Meester has received critical acclaim for her album post- GG. Penn Badgley recorded a single when he was 12 (tragically never released) and showed off his musical skills as Jeff Buckley in ‘Greeting From Tim Buckley.’…

I’m now vaguely peeved they never did a musical episode

Chuck Bass…

Ed Westwick’s turn as Chuck Bass is definitely one of the most memorable characters on the show but the Bass we saw was almost completely different.

As casting agents commented,”He looked more like a serial killer than a romantic lead.” And there was never any intention of setting up Blair and Chuck as romantic partners, in the book series the two have very little interactions and Chuck is revealed to be gay at the end.

The arrival of the iconic Chuck and Blair relationship was down to the chemistry between Ed Westwick and Leighton Meester.

Spin-offs…

Gossip Girl had two spin-off shows planned, the episode ‘Valley Girls’ was originally a back-door pilot for a prequel show surrounding Serena’s mother Lily.

Set in the 80s, Brittany Snow and Krysten Ritter were originally planned to star as the Rhodes sisters in L.A and there was going to be some crossover with our other favorite teen show the O.C.

There was originally a plan to have a Jenny Humphrey spin-off as she leaves the show. Following in the same vein as the book series ‘it girl’ that showed her adventures at a New England boarding school.

Inspiration…

Although Gossip Girl never spawned a successful spin-off it did serve as the inspiration for other things.

NYC Prep, the real life ‘Gossip Girl’ TV show that didn’t quite have the same charm as the scripted series. There was also Küçük Sirlar, the Turkish remake of the show and a Spanish remake Gossip Girl: Acapulco.

There was also a companion web series which followed Dorota and her friendships with the other housekeepers in the show called ‘Chasing Dorota.’

And there was a manga companion series to follow the book series. Even crazier there’s a version of the book where Blair and Serena are serial killers I shit you not.